Anthony Joshua ranks Derek Chisora above himself and Tyson Fury in all-time heavyweight ranking list featuring Francis Ngannou
04/03/2024 14:14
Anthony Joshua has named Derek Chisora above himself and Tyson Fury in a heavyweight ‘GOAT’ tier list.
Joshua is competing to return to the top of the division, and will face Francis Ngannou in a Saudi Arabia clash on his latest step towards redemption.
The former two-time world champion will be hoping to fight the winner of Tyson Fury‘s contest with Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed titles later in 2024.
And prior to his upcoming clash against the ex-UFC star, Joshua was tasked with ranking a list of all-time heavyweight greats in a tier list with Queensberry Promotions.
There were four tiers available for Joshua on the list which were ‘GOAT’ followed by ‘champion’, ‘world level’ and ‘mid level’.
He began by putting Muhammad Ali in ‘GOAT’ tier with Frank Bruno in champion below, before Chisora cropped up as an option.
He controversially placed ‘WAR’ in the top tier, despite the entertaining Briton having not won a world title during his professional career.
Surprisingly, he put himself and bitter rival Fury in the champion tier below Chisora despite the pair having both held world titles.
Leading the pack, Chisora was joined by Ali, Evander Holyfield, Wladimir Klitschko, Lennox Lewis, Rocky Marciano and Mike Tyson.
Included alongside himself and Fury were current rivals Joseph Parker, Oleksandr Usyk and Dentay Wilder two of whom he has fought.
AJ placed upcoming opponent Ngannou surprisingly high in the ‘world level’ tier alongside Daniel Dubois, David Haye and Dillian Whyte.
This comes after the Cameroon star having laced up his gloves just once professionally, showing he really isn’t under-estimating his ability.
Surprisingly Ngannou’s place came above the likes of Zhilei Zhang, Joe Joyce, Filip Hrgovic and Fabio Wardley, who had all been placed at ‘mid level’.
Joyce and Zhang have both been conquered by AJ during their time in the amateurs, so this provides decent justification for his rankings.
The former Olympian has studied the division at great depth, positing videos of himself conducting research on some previous era legends.
His rival Fury will potentially even be able to creep into Joshua’s GOAT tier, if he is to become undisputed champion against Usyk on May 18.
It will be the first time that a heavyweight has held all the world title belts since Lennox Lewis in 1999.
Joshua knows himself that he could achieve greatness in 2024, if he is to secure his own shot at the undisputed crown.
